


minor chords of major works

by transtlanticism



Category: Virals Series - Kathy Reichs
Genre: F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, i cant believe i had to add the hi/shelton ship manually, i cant believe im posting this cheesy garbage, i wrote it between midnight and 7 am, what fucking world is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 02:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14415429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transtlanticism/pseuds/transtlanticism
Summary: Shelton Devers doesn't want anything to do with soulmate garbage. So when he gets the customary mark on his eighteenth birthday that supposedly binds him to his soulmate, he tells the other Virals he didn't get one. Keeping the secret, however, proves more complicated than expected.





	minor chords of major works

**Author's Note:**

> yooooo look at me getting back into virals fics after like a two year hiatus from them

On November 30th, Shelton Devers turned eighteen. 

Eighteen wasn’t a normal birthday. Eighteen was the year you received a mark, the same mark that your soulmate received on their eighteenth birthday. 

If he was being honest with himself, Shelton had never much believed in soul marks. His parents had met through their soul marks, and they had always been happy together, but there were always people who didn’t have quite as good a story. Neither of Ben’s parents had gotten soul marks. Tory’s mom had had one, but had never found the other half before she died. 

Ben had gotten one, a pattern of waves on his upper arm. That was something. Now they were all just waiting to see if Tory’s was the same. For the time being, Ben tried to pretend it didn’t exist, although Shelton had heard a whispered conversation between the two of them once. 

Tory was worried it wasn’t going to be her. Ben swore he would love her anyway. And she lost it, telling him that if it wasn’t her, it was no use making promises he couldn’t keep when he found his real soulmate. 

Ben and Tory’s relationship was...intense, to say the least. Shelton wasn’t even sure relationships like that were worthwhile. 

But as the clock ticked down to the final seconds of November 29th, he held his breath as the second hand passed midnight. 

A tingling on the back of his right shoulder. 

He rolled out of bed, grabbed his glasses, ripped off his shirt and turned on the bathroom light, craning his neck to see the silvery lines in the mirror. 

It was a crescent moon. 

Intersecting triangles and dots arranged in a semicircular pattern, effectively marking Shelton as belonging to someone else. 

Feeling idiotic and angry about the whole concept, he slid his shirt back on and slapped the light off, trying desperately to fall asleep. 

Knowing it was useless. 

He wondered if his soulmate already had the mark. Couldn’t even fathom whom it would be. 

He was also only eighteen, he reminded himself, and had the rest of his life to find his soulmate. Not everyone was Ben and Tory. 

With that in mind, he definitely couldn’t sleep.

…

The next morning, still on an extended Thanksgiving break, the Virals were gathered on the common when Shelton emerged. All fell silent when Shelton approached. 

“So?” Tory asked. “Show us!”

Ben waited, one eyebrow raised. Hi seemed to be holding his jokes, waiting eagerly for Shelton to reveal his mark. 

And suddenly, Shelton really didn’t want this. 

He really didn’t want to partake in a soulmate thing. Like, the universe had to be such an asshole and design an entire goddamn game for them to find their perfect matches. It was exhausting. 

So he did the only thing he could think of. He lied. 

“I didn’t get one.”

“What?” Hi was stunned. “Are you sure you checked everywhere? Maybe it’s imprinted on your internal organs, or on a toenail you cut last—"

“I didn’t get one,” Shelton said stonily. “And I don’t really care. I never wanted one anyway.”

The group was quiet as he sat down. 

“I’m sorry, Shelton.” Tory squeezed his hand. “And I’m sorry we put so much pressure on you about it.”

“It’s fine.” He didn’t look up. 

Sensing the topic was growing stale, Hi quickly picked a new tack. “Did you guys catch Brooklyn Nine-Nine? I’m pretty sure that was the best opener of the season, if anyone’s keeping track...”

Shelton tuned him out, watching a few dolphins crest over the waves. It was almost December, but the four barely needed jackets outside in the crisp fall air. He was glad Hi had changed the subject, wasn’t sure he could take another second of pity in their faces.

Not for the first time that day, he wondered if he should tell them. Tell them everything. Not only that he had a soul mark. But the reason he was keeping it from him. 

He didn’t quite know how to tell his friends that, whoever his soulmate was, it was most definitely a guy.

…

New Years Eve. The four were camped out in Ben’s basement, a few bottles of beer smuggled in. 

Tory, forever sworn off of alcohol, flipped through a book and watched the three get drunk with frequent eye rolls and mutters about each of their respective parents. Shelton knew his parents would have murdered him, but couldn’t have cared less. 

The mark on his shoulder had begun to feel like a dead weight. The tank tops he had sometimes worn to sleep in the Lowcountry heat were shoved in a bottom drawer, for fear of his parents ever noticing his shoulder, replaced with longer-sleeved t-shirts. He’d have to think of something for the next time the four went swimming—a swim shirt, maybe, or a bandage, claiming to have scraped his shoulder. 

No. Ridiculous. They’d demand to see the war wound. And it wouldn’t be a small bandage. 

“Truth or dare,” Hi mumbled sleepily, attempting to start up the game they’d abandoned an hour ago. 

Shelton chucked a pillow at him. “I dare you to shut up.”

Hi snorted, and Shelton felt his stomach flip slightly. “Make me.”

From Hi, it could not have more clearly been friendly banter, but Shelton had long harbored a crush on his best friend. He’d mostly gotten over it, but something always seemed to resurface when he’d had too much alcohol. And sometimes, when Tory was attempting her fruitless mind control, it was really, really hard to keep a secret.

He set his beer down on an end table. “I think I’ll just go to sleep myself.”

“Good call.” Tory lifted her nose from the book, the only light in the room directly over her head. Unlike Shelton, nothing was preventing her from wearing a tank top, and he could see Ben’s gaze drifting across the room far more often than was necessary. “It’s almost 3:30. You guys are going to be a mess tomorrow morning.”

“Nothing’s worse than the hangover at the shooting range,” Hi reminded her. “Nothing.”

Ben winced, but Tory gave a wry smile, flipping the page of her book. “You guys are crazy,” she mumbled, and Ben relaxed. 

Shelton was abruptly reminded that it had been a while since they’d had to fight for their lives. While he didn’t miss their constant string of felonies, life was slightly more boring without superhero identities. And while they could still telepathically communicate, the most interesting situation they’d used it for was Kit and Whitney’s disaster wedding. 

He didn’t miss the danger. He missed the pack bond, the trust they placed in one another in dire times. The chance to see inside each other’s heads for fractions of seconds, despite how often he’d complained about it. 

“Y’all are cool people,” he muttered drunkenly. 

Tory snorted. Hi was already asleep. Ben was sprawled across a couch, but he was still awake, eyes glued to his phone. 

Shelton could see his screen—it was the SoulSearch app. A social media of sorts, it did its best to analyze your soul mark and find its match. An app Shelton had considered using, but didn't have the nerve to. 

His parents thought he didn't have a mark. His friends thought he didn't have a mark. As far as the world was concerned, he was a lone wolf, no pun intended.   
To the people he knew personally, anyway.

Rolling over, he opened his phone and typed it into the App Store search bar. It was the first hit under S.

Hit download. 

For better or for worse, he might as well give it a shot.

...

By the time Valentine’s Day rolled around, at least half of his classmates had already found their soulmates, so the day was spent wading through a haze of happy couples. 

Hi, mercifully, took it upon himself to accompany Shelton through back routes to classes, knowing full well that his friend hated anything soulmate-related. Anything to avoid the candy hearts that littered locker doors. 

Ben had texted Tory to meet him in the parking lot after fourth period, so Shelton and Hi were alone at their usual table in the corner at lunch.

“What do you think they’re up to?” Hi asked, reaching for one of Shelton’s fries. 

Shelton snorted. “Ben’s useless. He was like, ‘don’t most boyfriends get their girlfriends a stuffed bear or something?’ I told him a stuffed wolf would have been better, but I think he steered off that track entirely.”

“I would have paid to see that,” Hi grinned. “Ten bucks he messes this whole thing up.”

“I can’t bet against that.” 

Hi opened his mouth, then closed it. Sensing he’d switched to a different topic, Shelton eyed him warily. 

“Doesn’t it bother you?” Hi finally burst. “That everyone else got one, and you didn’t?”

“Your birthday’s not until April,” Shelton replied. “You might not.”

Hi shrugged. “I might not. I probably will. At least…I’ve always expected to get one.”

Shelton felt a pang of guilt for lying to his friend. “I’m sure it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. For me, anyway.”

“You’ve never seemed all that interested in any of the girls here, anyway,” Hi pointed out. “Keep the trend going. Pay it forward.”

“Right,” Shelton said hollowly. Girls. “You’re right about that one.”

Tory returned at the end of lunch, face flushed. Hi immediately set down his plastic fork. “Spill the tea, Brennan.”

“Shut it,” Tory said immediately. “We just had a nice lunch. Would have been nicer if he could come on campus, so we just drove to the docks and sat on a bench there.”

“Steamy,” Hi quipped. “Don’t scandalize the tourists.”

“I don’t see you doing anything this year,” Tory fired back, but her good mood was unshakable. “At least I’m dating someone.”

“Yeah. Ben. You really searched long and hard.”

Tory rolled her eyes as the bell rang. “Come on. We’ve got calculus.”

…

March 12th. Loggerhead Island. 

The four were sprawled on the beach, and Shelton had commandeered the ‘signal spot’, the only place on Dead Cat you could get bars. Reception was sketchy out in the jungle. 

Angling his phone away from the rest of the group, he opened SoulSearch and commenced scrolling through the moon category. 

Literally. Millions. Millions of moons in every shape and design and color. 

And not a single one identical to Shelton’s. He had, however, managed to find two people’s that matched each other and alert them to it. So that was something, at least. 

Shelton was so focused on his phone that he didn’t notice the shadow fall over his shoulder. 

“You ready to go?” Ben asked, directly behind him. “Tory and Hi are halfway to Tern Point by now.”

Shelton almost flung his phone into the surf, but Ben’s eyes had already locked on the screen. 

Too late for that.

“SoulSearch?” he asked. 

Shelton dropped his head to his knees as Ben sat down beside him.

“Talk,” he said. “You clearly have a mark. Why did you tell us you don’t?”

“I’m sorry,” Shelton said quietly. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I just…I hate this whole thing, this whole process of finding your One True Love or whatever. I mean, I may never find him—”

Ben’s eyebrows flew up. “Him?”

Shelton covered his head. “Oh my God.”

“Okay.” Ben absorbed this information. “So, can I see the mark?”

“You’re not gonna be mad I didn’t tell you I had one?”

“I get why you wouldn’t want to.”  
Hesitantly, Shelton pulled down the neck of his shirt, exposing the silvery lines crisscrossing the back of his shoulder. 

Ben nodded. “Listen, Devers…I won’t tell Tory or Hi. About any of it.”

“Thanks,” Shelton said quietly. 

“Come on.” Ben stood up, extending a hand. “Tern Point.”

“Tern Point,” Shelton agreed, following Ben to where Hi and Tory were waiting by a tree by the path fork.

“Everything okay?” Tory’s eyes flicked between them. “Shelton? Ben?”

“Fine,” I said. Ben nodded. 

“Oookay.” Sounding less than convinced, she turned, red hair swinging, leading the retreat through the woods. 

…

In the weeks that followed, Ben asked Shelton a few times, idly, how the soulmate search was going.

“Nothing,” Shelton complained under his breath, watching Hi and Tory walk ahead of him. 

More Hi than Tory, anyway. Which was insane. He needed to move on.

“I didn’t even want a soulmate,” Shelton said. “But I still wanted the choice, I guess. I know that sounds incredibly—”

“Similar to what everyone else is facing?” Ben shrugged. “I suspect your mind will change when you find him.”

“And if he doesn’t exist?” Shelton asked, his mind catching on the fact that Ben had just casually mentioned that he was gay. “There are horror stories, people whose soulmates died before they turned eighteen or ones who never had the opportunity to—”

“Shelton,” Ben said calmly. “You’ve only been eighteen for five months. You don’t need to find your soulmate right away. Most people’s soulmates don’t live right next door.”

“Yours does,” Shelton pointed out sullenly. 

“A few doors down.” Ben cracked a rare smile. “Besides, I don’t have proof that she’s my soulmate yet. Not until she gets a mark.”

But he didn’t seem worried. Then again, Ben didn’t display much emotion. 

It was possible Shelton just needed to stop looking for his soulmate. Maybe his soulmate would find him.

…

April 6th. 11:43 PM. 

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen.” Hi rubbed his hands together, smiling wickedly. “This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. And Tory the sucker still has to wait another year for—”

“We know,” Tory interrupted, exasperated. “And you’ve still got seventeen minutes.”

Hi checked his watch. “Sixteen! No, fifteen and forty-seven seconds.”

“Wake me when it’s over.” Ben stretched back on the floor to face the ceiling. 

Hi’s face betrayed the anxiety he felt, showing through the bravado, and Shelton found he could relate. The soulmate search was terrifying. 

He wondered what mark Hi would get. Who he would end up with. 

Despite everything, Shelton was slightly bitter at whoever it would be. Whoever it was couldn’t possibly deserve Hiram. 

“Five minutes,” Hi announced. 

“You’re just getting a mark,” Tory pointed out. “It’s not like you’re meeting your soulmate.”

“Jealous, Brennan?”

Tory rolled her blue-green eyes. 

“You are!” Hi crowed. 

“At least I have an idea of who it is.”

Shelton watched the clock icon tick on his phone. 

Three minutes. Then two. 

“Fifty-nine,” Hi chanted. “Fifty-eight. Hey!”

Ben slapped the back of Hi’s head. “Moron.”

“Thirty seconds,” Shelton reminded them. 

“Thank you,” Hi said exaggeratedly. “World, enjoy the last few moments of me being a free man. For within the next—oh.”

Hi looked down at his ankle. “Damn. My watch must be behind.”

For a few seconds, total silence. Then Ben and Tory scrambled to get a good look at Hi’s ankle. Slowly, Shelton followed them over. 

Then Ben jerked his head up. 

“It’s a moon,” he said. 

Shelton stared at Hi’s ankle. 

It was a perfect match. An exact replica of the mark on his shoulder. 

Hiram. Hi was his soulmate. Hi. 

All his fruitless hours on SoulSearch, and it was Hi in the end. 

“It’s a moon,” Ben repeated, more urgently. “A crescent moon.”

“Yup,” Shelton said tonelessly. “Yup. You’re right.”

Tory opened her mouth, but Ben grabbed her hand. “Tory and I are going for a quick…walk.”

“What?” Tory looked bewildered, but let Ben propel her out of the room.

Hi frowned after them. “What the hell was that about?”

Shelton took a deep breath. Tried to still his pounding heart.

“I’ve been lying to you,” he said.

“Okay.” Hi arched a brow. “About?”

“My soul mark. I said I didn’t get one.”

“You got one?” Hi almost pounced. “Let me see it!” 

No going back.

Shelton pushed down the collar of his shirt.

Hiram was silent.

“Well, thank fuck,” he finally said.

“What?”

“I hoped it would be you.” Hi swallowed. “I thought I was being stupid, that you didn’t have a soulmate, and that you weren’t…you didn’t like guys.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Shelton said quietly. “Any of you. I didn’t think it could possibly be you.”

Hi glanced at the door. “So Ben and Tory know?”

“Ben knows. Tory’s probably having an aneurysm as we speak.”

“Okay.” Hi glanced at the mark on his ankle. “What now?”

“It’s up to you,” Shelton hedged. “I mean…we’re soulmates. No matter what we decide, it’s always going to be a thing.”

“I’m all in if you are.”

Hi’s face was serious, all jokes shelved. He watched Shelton cautiously, as if he was afraid he’d get up and run.

But he didn’t.

“All in,” he echoed.

Tentatively, he leaned forward and kissed Hi.

The basement door flew open and Tory bounded in, Ben on her heels.

“Tory!” he hissed.

“Let me see the mark!” she demanded of Shelton. Rolling his eyes, he moved his shirt again, exposing the silvery lines for the third time. 

“Wow.” Ben glanced back and forth between them. “This…is not something I would have guessed. Ever.”

“This is great,” Tory said. “None of us ever has to tell our secret to another person. We’ll always stay a pack, no matter what.”

Hi scoffed. “What, like you think we’re gonna wander off and forget you exist? No chance. This is a life sentence, TB.”

Shelton reached for Hi’s hand. “Telling my mom is gonna be fun,” he said sarcastically. “I told her I didn’t get a mark.”

“We’ll all be there,” Tory promised. Ben nodded beside her. “For you, too, Hi. We’re a pack.”

…

Another midnight. Another birthday. 

Though Ben and Tory had remained convinced that the two of them were meant to be for years, the final test would be the mark. 

And as the clock struck midnight on Tory’s eighteenth, a pattern of waves, identical to Ben’s, appeared in curves across her wrist.

Hi shouted. Ben nearly collapsed in relief, wrapping his arms around Tory. Tory was smiling radiantly, and Shelton was laughing. 

Kit pushed the door open to Tory’s room.

“You get it?” he asked.

Tory held up her arm. “Ben.”

“I thought it might be.” 

He closed the door again, leaving the four Virals, now all adults, sprawled across the room, grinning like idiots. 

“We need a team chant or something.” Hi was lying on his back on the carpet, staring up at the ceiling. “A theme song. Matching outfits. A brand.”

“A designer genetic virus not enough for y’all?” Shelton asked from Tory’s desk chair. “You wanna go advertising it, too?”

“I think we’ve been in the spotlight enough,” Tory said. “Besides, we’ve all got to go back to school tomorrow, and I’m not sure when I’ll see you guys again.”

“It’s almost summer,” Hi said. “We’re all coming home this summer, right?”

“I’ll be here,” Shelton said.

“Yup,” Ben said.

“Yeah.” Tory smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @torybrennan


End file.
